I went and saw Burlesque for the 80 billionth time now. Every time I see the film I discover suttle nuances to the picture and fall in love with it more and more.  This is primarily due to the on-screen chemistry between the timeless Cher and the comedically-talented Stanley Tucci. The movie - though not receiving great praise from critics - is slowly and surely becoming a fan favorite. The soundtrack is blowing up the charts and most recently held the #2 ranking on the ITUNES chart. The movie was successful in that they incorporated classic components of a great romantic comedy with undertones of fame and achieving one's dreams and all that hooplah. Those components would be:

(1) Aspiring young blonde talent from podunkville nowhere who use to work in a bar/pizzaeria

(2) Hot man for girl to fall in love with and generally be nude throughout the movie

(3) A brassy club owner with a chip on her shoulder who decides to give the young blonde talent from podunkville nowhere a chance.

Then I realized that with a few modifications this could aptly describe a number of movies. The one that popped into my head the most was Coyote Ugly . The 2000 romantic comedy features Piper Perabo as an aspiring song writer who moves to New York with dreams of fame and success only to find herself working at Coyote Ugly - a bar featuring female entertainment - run by the sassy Maria Bello who decides to give this no-name girl from Jersey an opportunity. Similar to Christina in Burlesque, she is an instant success at the bar but of course struggles with family, work, and relationships on the road to overcoming her stage fright to finally save the day.

Thankfully, movie-goers can be rest assured that you will not find such trifiling crap in Burlesque. Instead of New York in a bar, we find ourselves in LA at a Burlesque club - which is so much better. The movie also leaves out such things as character development and sustainable plot and in lieu of that adds more dance/musical numbers. There were two things that held my attention and captivated me throughout the movie.

(1) Cher - This queen is 80 years old and doesn't have a single line on her. She is positively ageless and looks remarkable in this movie. She even debuts a track in the movie from her upcoming album entitled "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" - how appropriate seeing as how most people thought that after her farewell tour 20 years ago that she would leave the stage for good. Her voice is phenomenal throughout the show however I did notice that Cher doesn't really move at all during the movie. The dance sequence in the beginning features her standing and looking from side to side. Her face also doesn't move which made it really funny to see her do the dramatic serious scenes. I understand that Cher's pioneering efforts put plastic surgery on the map and it certainly shows in this film.

(2) Cam Gigandet - famous for his rather unfortunate brief appearance in Twilight, Cam is the one ofthe main reasons that I continued to watch the movie during scenes when Cher was not on screen. Aguilera's attempt at acting was laughable at best but Cam's rippling muscles and adorable personality - as well as him getting butt ass naked in the movie - managed to hold my focus.

Burlesque is definitely worth seeing - multiple times in fact. As long as you are not one of those movie-goers looking for the answers to life in the framework of a movie. The movie features flashy dance numbers exhibiting outrageous costumes, comedic wit served by Tucci, and I even appreciated Kristen Bell's jealous bitchy character. 

Most exciting though. The premiere of Burlesque, I believe, is going to mark the 3rd age of Cher ... THE RESURRECTION!!!! I see a flood of new movie offers coming her way which will coincide nicely with the new tour that she is developing as well. All Hail CHER!!!